Vincent Velasquez, 7, walks to his mother Linda Orozco's car after school at Central Elementary School in Longmont on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012. Orozco parks in the same spot every day when she picks her children up from school. She made bracelets and posted a flier of Jessica Ridgeway on the window of her car on Tuesday.
(Greg Lindstrom/Times-Call)

LONGMONT -- Linda Orozco sat in her car outside Central Elementary School on Thursday afternoon waiting to pick up her son and daughter.

A color flier of missing 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway of Westminster was taped to the back driver's side window of her car, she had a stack of fliers to hang around town, and she wore a bracelet with the missing girl's initials on it.

Orozco said she is friends with Ridgeway's aunt and the child's disappearance hits very close to home, yet she had already been picking up her 11-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son from school every day.

"Things have changed since I was younger," she said, acknowledging that sometimes her kids want a bit more freedom. "I had to explain to them that I am not being mean. I am just being protective."

School crossing guard Tim Sturgis said that in his experience at Central, Orozco's attitude is fairly common. Kids walking to school or being picked up are typically under adult supervision all the way to school grounds. Sturgis then saw a little girl standing alone and he immediately approached.

"Hey, what's going on," he asked.

"Nothing much," she replied with a smile, happy to see the 67-year-old crossing guard.

"Are you here all by yourself? Oh, there's your mom," he said, before taking a few moments to hear the girl's Halloween plans.

Sturgis said he hasn't heard parents talking about the Ridgeway case. Instead, they are always vigilant. He said sometimes parents have reported suspicious vehicles to him and he would call police to have them check out.

Danine Robertus, who was at the school Thursday to pick up her kindergartner, said that as a child in Greeley she pushed her mother to allow her to walk to school and her mother finally relented when she was in fifth grade. She said it is off the table for now for her child, but she may give in sometime down the line.

Linda Orozco shows a bracelet she made Tuesday with the initials of Jessica Ridgeway while waiting to pick up her children at Central Elementary School in Longmont on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012. Orozco parks in the same spot every day when she picks her children up from school.
(Greg Lindstrom/Times-Call)

Orozco said Ridgeway's disappearance has steeled her attitude about keeping her kids very close. When she heard that an unidentified body was found Wednesday in Arvada, she was compelled to wake her children to hug them. She has used news of the case to review "stranger danger" scenarios with her son and hopes that one day her diligence will be appreciated.

"I hope one day when they get older that they see what actually triggered that and they'll be like, 'Thanks, mom,'" she said.

Longmont schools, meanwhile, are part of a walk-to-school initiative called Safe Routes to School, which offers maps and programs to encourage kids to use their own power to get to school along designated safe routes with groups and adults.

Coordinator Lauren Greenfield said she hasn't received any feedback from the community regarding heightened concerns around the Ridgeway case.

"There is always concern for the safety of the kids," she said.

The Westminster Police Department reported Thursday that investigators hope to have a positive identification of the body found Wednesday by Friday afternoon. Ridgeway has been missing since Oct. 5. She was last seen walking from her Westminster home headed to school.

Clubs keeping eye on RPI rankingsIn the age of RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) determining playoff seeding in Colorado prep sports, playing a championship schedule has become more important than ever for any team expecting to compete for a state title. Full Story

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story